Texas turnover - Six competitors fight their way into Wrangler NFR lineup at Dallas

Posted Tuesday, November 13, 2007

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Five-time World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider Billy Etbauer headed a group of six competitors who made good on their last opportunity at the Nov. 9-11 Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Chamapionship in Dallas to work their way into the $5.5 million Wrangler National Finals Rodeo Dec. 6-15, in Las Vegas.

Etbauer will make his event-record 19th consecutive appearance at the Wrangler NFR and he did it in impressive fashion, despite not being fully recovered from a leg injury he suffered in July. He earned $8,572 over the weekend to move from 17th position past Dusty Hausauer, Jake Hayworth and Ryan Mapston into 14th place in the 2007 Crusher Rentals PRCA World Standings.

He finished second in the two-head average and second in the semifinals en route to the big payday.
The other "last chance" qualifiers for the Wrangler NFR to come out of Dallas were team ropers Jimmy Edens and Ryan Motes, steer wrestler Matt Reeves, tie-down roper Clint Cooper and bull rider Colin McTaggart. Only the lineups for bareback riding and barrel racing were unaffected.

Reeves was the first to break through, making a 3.8-second run as the first competior of the first round at the American Airlines Center, then seeing it hold up for a win that bumped out Billy Bugenig from the 15th and final Wrangler NFR spot. Before the weekend was over, Reeves had added a tie for fourth in the second round, a second place finish in the average and a third in the semifinals to earn $11,634 and move all the way from 18th to 12th in the standings.

Bugenig had a chance to bump the absent Jake Rinehart out of the 15th spot and get back in the Las Vegas lineup if he could have placed in any round, but he was competing with a torn pectoral muscle and wasn't able to get it done.

Cooper, the son of ProRodeo Hall of Famer Roy Cooper, made nearly as big a jump. A second-place result in the second round allowed Cooper to finish atop the two-head average standings, and he then tied for second place in the semifinals to finish with an event-best earnings total of $15,308.

That moved Cooper from 18th to 13th, not bad for a guy who didn't even get into the field until Nov. 6, after Barry Burk had to withdraw due to injury. Joseph Parsons, who was knocked out of the Top 15 by Cooper, could have moved his way back into the field with another $1,624 in earnings in Dallas. Parsons might still make the Las Vegas field if 15th-place Jerome Schneeberger is not sufficiently recovered from a broken leg to compete.

McTaggart earned $4,898 for winning the first round of the bull riding, bumping Luke Haught and assuring that he will be able to walk over to the Wrangler NFR performances from his dorm room at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

Marcus Michaelis, who did not qualify for Dallas, had a very nervous weekend, waiting out the results. After McTaggart made it into the Top 15 on Friday, Michaelis was a stitting duck at 15th, but Cooper Kangiesser didn't make it as far as the semifinals and Steve Woolsey, despite winning a round, fell short by $1,324 when he was bucked off in the finals by Powder River's Savage Shaker.

Edens and Motes were the last competitors to use Dallas as a springboard to the Wrangler NFR. A 4.6-second run in Sunday afternoon's semifinals got them second-place checks worth $3,674 each -- their first and only checks of the rodeo.

For Edens, it was enough to knock out Matt Funk and move to 14th place in the Crusher Rentals PRCA World Standings. Motes jumped from 18th to 15th, bumping out Cody Hintz by just $1,662.

In addition to all the cowboys-on-the-bubble drama going on in Dallas, there were also competiors making big jumps in the standings to better position themselves for the gold buckle chase in Las Vegas. Wade Sumpter's win in the steer wrestling competition at the American Airlines Center got him within $13,181 of standings leader Luke Branquinho. Jason Havens moved from 13th place to fifth in the bareback riding standings. Both Josh Peek in tie-down roping and barrel racer Terra Bynum jumped from 12th place to eighth in the world standings

The Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Championship was the culmination of the four-round Ariat Playoffs which started in Caldwell, Idaho, with the top 35 contestants from the 21-city Wrangler ProRodeo Tour and each event champion from the 2007 Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo. After Caldwell, the field was whittled to the top 22 from the cumulative Tour standings, the Caldwell playoff champs, plus DNCFR titlists, as the top athletes headed for the second Ariat Playoff rodeo, the Puyallup (Wash.) Pro Rodeo.

From there, the top 11 in the Tour standings and each event’s overall champion in Puyallup advanced to Omaha, Neb. The top 10 following Omaha qualified for Dallas.

Fox Sports Net will air three separate one-hour telecasts of the Dallas rodeo, beginning the week of Nov. 16. CBS coverage of Sunday's semifinal and final performances will air Dec, 2 either before or after National Football League game coverage, depending on what part of the country it is being shown.

Proceeds from the event benefited Children’s Medical Center, the only Dallas healthcare facility that deals exclusively with a variety of diseases and disorders among children, and the pediatric programs at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, which is among the top medical centers in the nation for educating health professionals and conducting significant medical research.

For more information on the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour and the Ariat Playoffs, visit www.prorodeo.com.